Parramatta is bracing for a week of “tough conversations” after capitulating to the Dolphins but coach Brad Arthur would not commit to dropping players after the 44-16 thrashing.
For the second time in three weeks, the Eels collapsed in a heap after half-time, leaking 40 second-half points to slump to a heavy defeat at Darwin’s TIO Stadium.
The undermanned Dolphins were particularly damaging from long range as they ran in eight tries to one after the break.
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Arthur accused the Eels of being a “part-time footy side” that “gave up” once the Dolphins’ pressure became too much to handle.
“What’s wrong with our season is that we are a part time footy team at the moment,” he said.
“We pick and choose when we want to play and we pick and choose in the 80 minutes when we want to make a tough choice or a soft choice, because that second half wasn’t good enough.
“It just all got too fast for us and too hard and we gave up, simple as that.
“There’s only a handful of players at this club at the moment that choose to come every week to play with the right mentality and toughness… and want to be an 80-minute footballer and the want to be an NRL player every week.”
The Eels’ season is already entering a critical phase; talismanic halfback Mitch Moses is not due back from his foot fracture for another month and in that time, Parramatta faces three tough opponents in Manly, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Lose those games and the Eels will fall to a 3-7 record with the State of Origin period approaching.
Captain Clint Gutherson said the time was right for heart-to-heart chats at Parramatta, who are set to finish the weekend in the bottom four.
“We have to have those tough conversations and look at each other in the eyes,” the fullback said.
“You know if you’re doing your job. If you’re questioning if you did do your job or you didn’t, you haven’t.
“There’s a handful that are doing it but you need 17 players every single week to do their job to win an NRL game of footy and we didn’t do it this week.”
But coach Arthur would not commit to swinging the axe, aware Parramatta beat North Queensland in round six with much the same 17 as that which lost to the Dolphins.
“We’ve seen it (those players perform),” Arthur said.
“We chose poor options against Canberra (in round five) and then the next week we came out against Cowboys, one of the really good teams in the competition, and we chose to do those tough actions and we showed that we can play football.
“We chose to do it for the first 30 minutes tonight.
“We did it for the first 30 minutes but then we make an error and then we choose to take soft options, they score a try and things are going against us and we feel sorry for ourselves.”
Arthur said there was only so much he could do for the Eels once the whistle was blown for kick-off.
“I’m not absolving myself of any responsibility but the players choose what attitude they come with for the 80 minutes,” he said.
“We’ve had that discussion over and over as a club that we can only do so much during the week but when they come to play, they choose when they cross the white line, what attitude they want to have.”